The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bay senior Rocco earns 150th win
Anthony Rocco’s journey started when he went with his dad in the car to weekend youth wrestling tournaments as a kid.
Now near the end of his decorated high school career, the senior team captain Rocco (120 pounds) ticked off a big milestone Feb. 10 at the GLC Tournament: Career win No. 150, by pinfall.
“Going into it, my mom told me — I think the match before (the finals) — ‘Oh, by the way. I just added it up. It’ll be the 150th win,’ ” Rocco recalled.
“That was pretty exciting because going into it, I didn’t think of it like that. To me, it’s just like any other match, you know? It was a cool time to get the 150th when I realized it.”
“When I first started (coaching), we had quite a few guys who won 100 matches in the Edison program,” Bay coach David Brown said. Over his years as a coach, he’s seen several wrestlers reach the 100-win plateau.
“But (150 wins), that’s really special. That’s something that’s kind of beyond the norm and again, it’s such a special thing to collect that many wins. It just goes to the quality of the wrestler and the program itself.”
Some good wrestlers will get to 100 wins or fall short. Others who hope to reach this marker have to win an average of 37.5 matches a year, which isn’t easy in a physical sport that can be a grueling stretch.
“Every day, I’ve been going at it for a while now. Or I guess I should say going back to when I was younger” said Rocco. “I had my dad driving me around to all these different places, (and) my family and all my different coaches I’ve had throughout the years culminating into this. I couldn’t have done it without any of them.
“It’s never been my main goal. It was a cool, extra, lucky thing that I’m blessed enough to have.”
Of course, Rocco’s dad — the person he shared so many of those childhood memories with — was present for his son’s big moment.
“It was really good. We had a really special moment,” Rocco noted as he started to slightly choke up for a brief moment over the phone but kept his composure.
“We hugged in the hallway and we’re always close. It’s just been a long time, a long time coming. It’s really hitting home how awesome and blessed I am to have the family I do.”
Outside of one final dual match this week home against Columbia on Feb. 15 before sectionals start Feb. 24, Rocco has three more weekends left to continue leaving his mark at Bay if all goes according to plan — with a second state trip and podium placement in Columbus the second weekend of March.
“Going into it, it’s just knowing you’ve put in the work heading into states and having that confidence in that,” Rocco stated. “No matter what happens, I know when I go out there I did the best that I could. So that’s the main thing I’m focused on right now. I’m going to go out there, wrestle my hardest — wrestle what I’ve been training to do all these years and know I left it all out there no matter what happens.
“I’m just going to go for it, you know? Why not? This is the fun part of the season — this is why you work hard. I’m just really grateful for having the opportunity and the help to be able to have done (all of) this.”